I think if somebody asked me what the most sensory objects are in the museum's Iran collections,
it has to be these Safavid ceramic bath rasps from late 17th century or early 18th century Iran.
In the museum we refer to them as bath rasps,
but they basically do the job that a pumice stone would do today.
They're sensory not only because as objects they make noise themselves,
but they're sensory in the ways in which they would have come into contact with
the bodies of the people who use them or, the bodies which they were used on.
There would have been masseurs, and people who would have used objects
like this are known as the dallak, who would have scrubbed the skin of the body.
The person who was being scrubbed would have had someone to assist them.
And there would have been lots of activities that took place in the bath, not just bathing.
People would have come to have their hair cut, possibly their hair removed,
or their hair hennaed as well. Or they would have come for medical treatments such as cupping.
The oval rasp I find particularly tactile, because it has these sprigs around the outside.
Because the objects are glazed, I feel like actually when they're wet, they might have
been slightly slippery, so I feel like having these sprigs on the outside of the object
actually would have helped the user of it to to hold it while it was rubbed against the skin.
So this one has a cross hatch base which does feel like it's been worn down a little bit.
And as I've just turned it over we can also hear that it has a rattle inside it,
and to me this rattle sounds like...
...like the rattle's made of quite big objects? I think they also sound like they're round.
We're not entirely sure what it is that's inside it.
We're hoping that we might be able to X-ray them to find out exactly what it is inside,
but I'd expect it, I think, to also be ceramic – but unfortunately we don't really have any sources
that tell us about exactly what's inside.
The duck...
...also has a rattle, but it sounds quite different to the oval.
I think while the rattle inside the oval was bigger objects that were possibly round,
the rattle inside this bird feels a bit smaller with its high pitch,
and you can see that it also has marks on the on the base to give that that rasp effect.
But here again it's different – we're not seeing a cross hatch like we did on the oval,
we're seeing a sort of stippling effect.
I'm not exactly sure why they rattle – there aren't really any sources that
discuss that either – but we can imagine that as they were being used in the bath,
they would have contributed to the other many sounds in the bath.
For me the shoe is particularly interesting,
as it's both a model of an object which of course would have been worn on the foot,
but in this context for use in the bath it also would have been used to massage the foot.
So it's actually quite a playful object in many ways.
We don't know exactly how it would have been used, but even just holding it in my own hands
I can feel that it might have been used like this [demonstration] as that's the easiest
way to hold it in the hands. But it also has a small hole
in the heel which suggests that it might have been hung when not in use.
Doesn't actually have any marks on its sole. Very smooth. The shoe feels much smoother.
So it's perhaps more likely that this would have been used for massaging,
rather than necessarily scrubbing.
Now we'll just think a bit about how they feel.
With this large teardrop, which in many ways feels like the largest of the objects, but it still fits
in the palm of my hands quite nicely. And it has that
deep cross hatching in its base but it doesn't have a rattle.
This one has a hole in the base and I'm not entirely sure why the hole would have
been created, but it means that if it did have a rattle that perhaps all the
bits have have fallen out. It's difficult to tell,
but I think the object is hollow and so it's quite possible that it did have the rattle.
I think this one is actually my favourite.
The Cypress tree.
As the cypress tree – which is called a Sarv in Persian – is actually a very
common motif both in the arts of Iran as well as literature, the classical literature of Iran.
Often the cypress is used in classical personal poetry as a metaphor for the beloved.
It's often compared with the body of the beloved, so the shape and the stature
of the cypress is often referred to when talking about the stature of the beloved.
The cypress tree – now that I pick it up – we can hear that it also has a rattle,
which is again quite different to the other two. I think it sounds like there are more pieces in
the cypress, and the pitch is a bit lower than the duck was. I think all the pieces
inside feel like they're different shapes and sizes and weights as well.
And we can also see that the base again does have a pattern scored into it, probably while
the clay was still slightly wet before firing. And here we've got a zigzag pattern. It's quite
different from the cross hatching of the oval rasp and the duck rasp.
Still feels like it might be effective on your feet.
To me this rattle sounds like
the rattle's made of quite big objects. I think they also sound like they're round.
The duck also has a rattle, but it sounds quite different to the oval. I think while
the rattle inside the oval was sort of bigger objects that were possibly round,
the rattle inside this bird feels a bit smaller with its high pitch.
The cypress tree – now that I pick it up, we can hear that it also has a rattle. Which is
again quite different to the other two. I think it sounds like there are more
pieces in the cypress and it's also, the pitch is a bit lower than the duck was. I
think all the pieces inside feel like they're different shapes and sizes and weights as well.
Now, these objects are I would say sort of high-end objects they're elite objects. We'd
say that because most ceramics are unglazed, so we can see from the base of the objects for practical
purposes they're unglazed, but the rest of the objects are glazed and they're highly decorated.
So that makes me think that they were not your average, everyday
bath rasp. It's likely that there would have been unglazed bath rasps as well, but all of these are
glazed which suggest that they would have been used by members of the higher echelons of society.
In some ways these objects are also remarkable in the collection, in that they're
self-care objects. They would have been used by people in very personal and
possibly private ways to look after themselves.